Gators' Charlie Weis won't overuse Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey

A few days prior to the season opener against Florida Atlantic, Gators' offensive coordinator Charlie Weis said he was fired up about the potential of the duo of Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.

But after Saturday night's impressive performance against FAU, in which the two combined for 184 yards on 23 carries, Weis said don't think for a second that he plans to run Rainey and Demps into the ground early in the season. Not a chance."

What I expected was basically what you saw,'' Weis said. "They are both exceptional players. I think my job, and our job, is to make sure that we utilize them enough and not too much. I think that’s important. Because if you’re going to play a 14-game season, which is what we intend to do, then you have to worry about the stamina of guys that aren’t 230 pounds.''

With that said, Florida also has no intenstions of holding back in Saturday's game against UAB in anticipation of next week's SEC opener against Tennessee. Weis said this is no time to transition into the offense.

"That’s really what spring ball and training camp were for – half of training camp,'' he said. "By the time you get through half of training camp you better start figuring out who you are – and what you are. And then when you figure out who you are and what you are, it’s kind of throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. We’ve kind of already gone through that in spring and the first half of training camp. Because in the spring we didn’t have the numbers that we have. We didn’t have Demps, we didn’t have some of these linemen, we didn’t have a lot of these players. So now after you go through the first couple of weeks and say okay here’s what we’ve got, then you can start zeroing in on what you’re going to do.''

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Florida Gators fans, welcome to the Gator Report for all your news about Gators football, basketball and all UF sports. It's written by University of Florida beat writer Antonya English and the staff of the Tampa Bay Times. We invite your comments and participation.